My sunflowers are sick!

Live at Three

Hi Folks
After patiently and painstakingly hardening off my new sunflowers over the last few weeks I've planted them out in the bed. Problem is now that around half of them are starting to shrivel and curl up. The leaves don't look good, they are kind of pale and shrivelled with white veiny lines running through them. Also I have seen tiny red bugs on some of them, don't know if that is connected.
I've given them a dose of tomato food and making sure they're getting enough water.

Any ideas what this is?

yellowlabrador

I think you are way too early putting them out yet. I only sow mine end of May. Also tomato food is a wrong choice as it will encourage blooming, an ordinary fertilizer would be better.

Lady Tottington

This makes me feel very nervous as I am also growing Sunflowers as my first attempt at gardening. I thought Sunflowers were fool-proof? I just followed the instructions on the back of the packet (Giant Russian?). I planted them in potting compost in a plastic propagator on the patio and transferred them as seedlings to individual little pots about two weeks ago. I also fed them Tomato feed but if that's wrong I won't do it again.
I have two pre-schoolers helping me all the way! If they don't grow I'll be gutted

Yi Harr

Sounds like you may have an infestation of Red Spider Mite as well as possibly planting out a bit too early.

You may have time to try germinating/planting seeds again alternatively you could buy a few small plants in B&Q in a few weeks and plant them out.

It's always a pain when you lose plants, especially when you've grown them from seed.

Yi Harr

Just as an aside, in general tomato plant feeds are high in Potash and Potassium which promotes fruiting growth, while general feed or Nitrogen rich feeds promote vegetative growth.

So maybe use a high Nitrogen feed while getting the plant established/while it's growing and then switch to tomato feed when buds appear.

looksee

Just leave them and hope for the best. If it doesn't get cold you may be lucky. Put a few more in pots (just put them straight into small pots, about 2-3 to a pot, save the best one, pinch out the others. Plant out mid May. You don't need to feed them to start with, there is enough nutrient in the compost. They will probably overtake the first lot, interesting to compare and see if they do.

redser7

Keep an eye on met.ie for 5 day forecast (night temps). Get some horticultural fleece and wrap them up at night. Very cheap and only takes a few seconds. Had to revert to it for some half-hardy plants because there is no space left in-doors. They are thriving and getting great benefit from the good sunshine during the day.

magicbastarder

i managed to get 12 foot tall sunflowers by throwing kelkin seed out on a plot i'd just dug one may a few years ago. it was a bloody forest of them, kinda odd for phibsboro, but the locals seemed to like them.